OFFSTAGE: Taylor Swift: No Clubbing in the Car

(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that’s happening with country music artists behind the scenes and
out of the spotlight.)

When is a song not a song? Ask Taylor
Swift. “I don’t like to feel like I’m in a club when I’m in my car and I turn on the radio,” she
told Billboard. “Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.” So
whatever you do, don’t play that in Swift’s car. Music she does love right now is “Cruise”
by Florida Georgia Line (“It’s the catchiest thing I’ve heard in years”) and
ballads and hits that have substance and real instruments, like ones from Ed Sheeran, the
Lumineers and Fun. But it sounds like what Swift has loved most of all about the past year is the loyalty of her fans.
“When I put out an album, it’s like me releasing my version of events, the way I felt at my highest and lowest points,” she
said. “Sharing that with the world is a vulnerable position to put yourself in, and having it be so celebrated by my fans
was almost an indescribable feeling of joy and relief and ‘Oh, good, they understand me.'”